Posts Tagged ‘brownies’

Everyone who knows me, knows my love of Nutella Brownies. I have posted recipes before but I was not 100% satisfied with the results. The last one I posted had too much sugar and too much cocoa as well as chocolate chips – which were unnecessary. First of all, Nutella contains sugar and cocoa, so I wanted that to be the ingredient that provided those. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t discriminate when it comes to brownies and I happily eat any result, but the last batch was too rich for me.

So I tried another recipe on my quest. I think this is a valiant and noble quest for a woman of my generation. On my journey I looked for a recipe with less sugar, less or no cocoa, and mainly Nutella to satisfy the chocolate/sugar ingredient. I am thinking maybe in the future I will just experiment and make up my own. But for now, I made the following recipe for a pizza night for friends about a month ago. I was very pleased with the results, the brownies were moist and Nutella-rific, not too much sugar or chocolate tasting and the salt was an extra treat. I think that having less flour made them like a rich piece of fudge. I also liked the salt, as I did in my chocolate chip blondie recipe, it adds a nice mix f sweet and salty. So if you are a Nutella junky like me, check out this recipe for a special treat!

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides to easily lift the brownies out of the pan when cool. (If using a 9-inch pan, the bake time will be a few minutes less.) Set aside.
With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed in a large bowl until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and beat on high speed for 1-2 minutes until creamed. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until combined, then beat in 1 cup Nutella and salt. Mix until smooth and fluffy. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, add the flour, mixing just until combined. Do not over mix.
Pour the batter into prepared baking pan. Drop teaspoonfuls of the remaining 1/4 cup Nutella on top. Using a knife, swirl the Nutella into the batter. Top with a sprinkle of sea salt.
Bake the brownies for 30-36 minutes. Keep your eye on them and test with a toothpick to determine doneness. If the toothpick comes out with only a couple moist crumbs, the brownies are done. The brownies may take a few minutes longer; all ovens vary. Mine took 28-30 minutes, I always cook brownies less because I like them a bit less done, plus I used a 9-inch pan.
Allow the brownies to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack. Once cool, lift the foil out of the pan using the overhang on the sides and cut into squares.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love brownies. If I go to a frozen yogurt sundae bar, a brownie is my first choice in my cup. I have written before about how much I love boxed brownies. For someone who bakes most things from scratch that may be odd. But I grew up on brownies from scratch so a box mix at a party was my favorite treat. Though I do love my mom’s brownies, the texture and stickiness of box brownies is my favorite. I have an awesome college friend who shares my love of brownies, my brownie husband recipe is one of her favorites.

I googled homemade brownies that taste like a box mix and found an amazing recipe. I would say I have made it a dozen times since I found it last year. It is perfect for any occasion and people can’t believe they are from scratch. I recently made them and used the Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa instead of regular cocoa and it made them even more decadent. So if you are a closet Betty Crocker box brownie junkie like me, you need to try these! They are super easy and only have a few ingredients instead of ones you can’t pronounce, which is something I always look for when recreating stuff at home.

Quick and Easy Brownies {Like a Box Mix!}

Yield: 12-16 brownies

Ingredients

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup + 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa

1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×9 square baking pan, or line it with parchment paper.

2. Mix together the oil, sugar and vanilla extract.

3. Add eggs and mix until well combined.

4. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

5. Slowly add to the egg mixture until well combined.

6. Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.

I love when my friends and readers send me recipes. I have been wanting to try a suggestion for Nutella Brownies for some time now. There was no better time than my recent superbowl party. I figured that baking a 9×13 pan of brownies could be extremely dangerous when I am alone and vulnerable, so why not share. The brownies turned out great and everyone was happy to help me eat them. The texture of them was amazing, it was like a store bought brownie mix gooeyness combined with a raw brownie batter stickyness.

I have never used baking melts but I am a believer after trying them in this recipe. Also I have never seen a recipe with that much cocoa in it for brownies so I thought they may be too chocolately. GASP, is there such a thing you ask? The brownies did turn out very rich but not in a bad way, you could just grab a small slice and fill that sweet urge. If I made them again I might halve the recipe to make an 8×8 batch. So if you want to host the perfect wedding in your kitchen, join nutella and brownies, they make a great couple!

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 baking dish.
In small saucepan over low heat, melt butter completely. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Do not allow sugar mixture to boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in the Nutella until well combined.
Pour butter mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer, beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
Stir in the flour and baking melts until just combined.
Spread into prepared pan (batter will be very thick and sticky) and bake for about 30-35 minutes, until a tester comes out mostly clean. The edges should be set and the center should still look slightly moist, but not uncooked. Cool on a wire rack.

When I heard from a girlfriend about a recipe called slutty brownies imagine my surprise when I googled it and it popped up on Duncan Hines’ site? The family friendly brand has a wild side I guess. But the intriguing name caught my attention so of course I had to research this further. What is a “slutty brownie” you may ask? Well it is the combination of the most amazing ingredients. They are called slutty brownies because they are “dirty and sinful.” Think super indulgent and gluttonous. A layer of cookie dough covered in whole Oreos, topped with brownie batter. I found the Duncan Hines pre-made version and the version from scratch, either way me and my girlfriend are gonna dig in when we whip these up today!

Give me an excuse to bake and I am on it. A fabulous couple I know invited me to dinner recently so I was excited to wow them with a favorite sweet treat of mine. I used to make my mom’s Black and White Cheesecake Brownies quite often and I had forgotten about them until I recently reorganized my recipe binder. Think decadent rich brownies with creamy cheesecake on top dotted with chocolate chips. Really you can’t go wrong with this marriage of my two favorite desserts.

My only tip is to use mini morsels for the chips, as regular sized chips are so heavy they will sink into the cheesecake layer when baking. This isn’t a bad thing because it creates a melted chocolate divider between the two layers, but the cheesecake is better with the tiny chips throughout. Everyone enjoyed these brownies at dinner and had seconds (myself I had like thirds, fourths and fifths until I was in a brownie coma).

In a small bowl combine cream cheese, sugar and butter, beat until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, milk (slowly), flour and almond extract. Beat well. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Pour over brownie base. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Cool completely, cut into 2 and 1/4 inch squares, makes 16 brownies – or one giant one if you don’t want to share.